Weekend Wrap Up [WARNING: Food Heavy]

I'm beginning to think that Beauty Blogger Meet-Ups = Secret Opportunity for food blogging. I say this because despite having my camera with me for Nunu and Sheila's visit, my best photos were of the food we ate... not so much my makeup (or theirs). In fact, the only picture I have of the three of us together my eyes are closed in! (Darn it).

So with that in mind... I'm just going to show you random photos from their trip to Calgary!

(On a related note, I am super bad at keeping my eyes open with flash photography, hence all my 'makeup pictures' are taken during the day XD)

Photo-bomb: Cross Iron Mills, Canada Olympic Park, & A Shot of Downtown

It's almost the end of January (!) so I wasn't going to post these since they're very Christmas-themed (the remainder of the shareable pics from my cousins' visit up here) but my twitter-friends seemed receptive... so you're all subject to them!

I really thought we took them to more but I skipped out on the Calgary Tower visit (too cold) and then we spent most days at either my house, my sister's, or my various aunts and uncles... so I'll have to try harder to explore my city! These are my favourite picture from where we DID visit :D

This is actually right above Murale (AKA my favourite store ever) in the 'fashion district' of Calgary - it's really the outdoor mall part of TD Square. I'm not sure if the mural is the same - it changes periodically!

Travel Alberta: Canmore, Banff, and Lake Louise

I'll be honest - I'm not a very good 'staycation' person. The only time I really travel around my own province is when we get visitors who have never been here. I'm not the kind of person who likes camping or hiking or generally outdoor activities (ha) so ... basically, my 'Travel Alberta' is a very rare occurrence.

I was lucky enough to have my cousins visit me right after Christmas this year so of course we took them around as much of Alberta as we could... roads permitting! This is really the first time I'd driven to any of these places in the winter (other than with school) so ... it was fun for me to see the place I've lived my whole life in a new light. This post is VERY picture heavy - we went to three different places in a day (and froze the entire time).

Holidays in the Sakura Household :)

I hope everyone has had a wonderful holiday week! Belated Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year to everyone!! I've got lots of random things to post (including a holiday-tour of Calgary courtesy of my cousins) but I wanted to share a few snapshots from the holidays at my house this year. 

I'm pretty sure that at this point my house was a fire hazard... no clear exit routes.... XD

San Francisco Day 3: Japantown, Union Square, Fisherman's Wharf

Honestly, I am going to try to finish talking about this trip before I go to San Diego but I'm being honest with myself when I say it probably isn't going to happen. XD; I don't know why I don't have as many pictures with my mom... I think she is holding the camera a lot of the time :P

Anyway Day 3 we spent in downtown San Francisco, and we saw all the tourist-y things as neither Kuya A nor Ate M had seen them before (it's about a 3 hr drive for them, so quite a distance - and hotels are expensive!). The weather was gorgeous, and after another train ride on the BART from the airport we bought day passes to tour more of the city. It was cheaper for us to get the day pass as it is valid on the regular bus system and the cable cars :)

San Francisco Day 2: Golden Gate Bridge, Palo Alto, & A Hotel on the Bay

My second day in San Francisco started off much better, as my ears had popped while I was sleeping, and also that we were checking out of our ugh hotel to go to our actual hotel. Also because my cousin A and his wife M were coming to pick us up to spend a few days with us! I hadn't seen A since I was 3, so it was really like we were meeting for the first time :)

The weather was absolutely gorgeous, which was nice, as we spend a lot of the day outdoors and driving :)

San Francisco Day One: Fisherman's Wharf, a Crappy Hotel, and CRAB!!

My trip to San Francisco ended a couple of weeks ago, but given my rate of posting (slower than a snail) I thought I should finally upload pictures and chat about it... especially as I am back to California in 3 weeks (this time San Diego :D). Normally I don't end up doing a lot of sight-seeing on the first day, but as we got to San Francisco quite early (around 2PM) and our temporary hotel ended up being crap, my parents and I decided to squeeze some sight-seeing in right away... and grab dinner while we were at it. First stop: Fisherman's Wharf.

Living In A Winter Wonderland...

So while I have grown up in Calgary, and I love it here, I am still surprised at how early it snows EVERY YEAR. Kelsie and I joked to Tomo in Japan that on average, it usually snows at least once a month in Canada. Luckily we missed out on the August/September snow (we just had hail… which is flying chunks of ice).

I was not prepared for this two days in a row:

Seriously Calgary. I actually did go out the first day which was terrifying as none of the streets had been plowed yet, and as we got about double the amount of snow today, I vetoed myself out of leaving my house, other than to shovel the driveway. Because winter driving is scary whether I’m on the road or not. I think the news said there was at least 200 collisions yesterday morning due to the slipperiness.

It’s supposed to Chinook on Friday though, so just watch, all this snow will melt and it will be super slushy. Ah well.

At least it’s pretty.

And the day goes by...

I had a wonderful day! Except that it was –20C when I woke up, which is SO NOT COOL and it is way too early in the month to be so cold! I’m glad I unpacked my winter jackets from storage yesterday! Not a lot of snow yet but I’m sure it’s coming… and then all the leaves will get wet and rot which will smell awful.

ANYWAY. Today was mostly focused on food; went for lunch with my mom and (nursing)Kelsey, then did a bit of shopping; and then out for dinner with the family this evening. Dinner was fantastic. In fact, I think I am still digesting, so I’m all sleepy, so this will mostly be food!porn. We went for steak :D. I’m not a HUGE meat-eater, but I love getting steak in restaurants, haha.

The Flames lost their first game of the season :( but we are 4-1 which is a pretty good record, AND it was the second consecutive day of games, so I think they were tired. But what an awesome start! Only 77 more games to go before playoffs :)